Cognition

Sales Development Manager at Cognition (San Francisco, CA / Austin, TX / New York, NY)

Cognition· San Francisco, CA / Austin, TX / New York, NY·

Role details

Employment
Full-Time

Cognition at a glance

Applied AI lab behind Devin, the autonomous AI software engineer, and the Windsurf IDE.

Cognition is an applied AI lab building autonomous software engineering agents. Its flagship, Devin, plans, writes, tests, and ships production code inside a customer's own codebase and tooling. After acquiring Windsurf in 2025, it also runs the Windsurf AI-native IDE as a synchronous complement to Devin's async agent work.

$1.5B+ raised · latest: Series D · $1B+ · $26B valuation · May 2026 · backed by Lux Capital, General Catalyst, 8VC, Founders Fund

Job description

We are an applied AI lab building end-to-end software agents. We're the makers of Devin, the first AI software engineer. Our team is extremely talent-dense. Among our founding team, we have world-class competitive programmers, former founders, and leaders from companies at the cutting edge of AI including Scale AI, Palantir, Cursor, Waymo, Tesla, Lunchclub, Modal, Google DeepMind, and Nuro. Building Devin is just the first step—our hardest challenges still lie ahead. If you’re excited to solve some of the world’s biggest problems and build AI that can reason on real-world tasks, apply to join us.

WHAT YOU'LL DO

  • Hire, ramp, coach, and manage a team of Sales Development Reps responsible for generating pipeline across net new accounts (Enterprise and Majors).
  • Set and track team targets for outbound activity, meetings booked, and early-stage opportunities generated, and coach reps against those numbers daily.
  • Build and refine outbound playbooks, messaging, and sequences as the product and market continues to evolve.
  • Partner closely with Account Executives and Marketing to align on target accounts, lead handoff, and follow-up quality.
  • Analyze team and individual performance data to identify what's working, fix what isn't, and share learnings across the team.
  • Act as a career coach for your reps, building a bench of talent that can grow into closing and other GTM roles.
  • Stay close to the field – join calls, review call recordings, and roll up your sleeves to prospect alongside your team when needed.

WHAT YOU'LL BRING

  • High adaptability and energy for the fast-moving, still-being-built nature of an early-stage company.
  • A people-first management style – you get energy from coaching reps and watching them grow.
  • Strong command of outbound process and metrics, and the discipline to hold a team accountable to them.
  • Boundless curiosity and the ability to learn quickly as the product and market evolve.
  • Strong technical aptitude and the ability to speak credibly with engineers about the Cognition platform.
  • A track record of building or significantly improving a sales development function and hitting pipeline targets.
  • Team player – you win and lose with your Sales, Marketing, and GTM peers.
  • 1+ years managing an SDR/BDR team, plus prior individual-contributor sales development experience, ideally in technical or developer-focused SaaS.

WHAT WE BELIEVE

Only a small handful of companies have built career-defining sales teams. We're on a mission to build the next one. That starts with setting the bar for early-career talent extremely high. Even the best sales reps are never a finished product. World-class enablement is key to a world-class sales organization and a competitive advantage. We have hired one of the best teams in the industry to ensure everyone continues to get better. We're not a family, but many of our employees have them. Cognition offers a number of benefits and perks to make sure everyone is cared for – including but not limited to:

  • Competitive comp plan
  • Comprehensive benefits (medical, dental, vision)
  • 401K, equity
  • Meals in office, catered lunches, fully stocked kitchen, swag, etc.
  • Monthly wellness stipend
  • Team events & activities
  • Parking and Uber commuter benefits

Equal Opportunity

Cognition is an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other protected characteristic under applicable law. We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations for candidates with disabilities throughout the hiring process - please let us know if you need any.

Why work at Cognition

  • Culture: “Talent-dense,” interdisciplinary, low-ego, and urgency-driven. The team works on “the hardest problems in AI” and values shipping real impact.
  • Work model: Hybrid/office-first with major hubs in San Francisco, New York, Austin, London, Singapore, Tokyo, and others. Many roles list specific locations, suggesting in-office presence is expected.
  • Benefits: Comprehensive medical, dental, vision insurance; unlimited PTO; meals in primary offices; wellness stipend; commuter benefits; 401(k); HSA/FSA; fertility and family building support.
  • Engineering culture: Strong emphasis on applied AI, customer proximity (“we work alongside our customers”), and building infrastructure that redefines software engineering.

Application questions